Mclaren aiming to usurp home favourites

The 2009 Italian Grand Prix was so nearly won by a Mclaren driver. The 2010 Italian Grand Prix was again so nearly a victorious weekend for the Woking boys. Now in 2011, with the game seemingly up in terms of the Constructors and Drivers Championships, you would not be forgiven for thinking the focus has already shifted to 2012. That may be correct, yet one should not expect Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button to fade away as a testing season draws to a close. In fact, on a circuit famous for its high speed naure should suit the characteristics of the MP4-26.

Hamilton said: “Last year, I won at Spa and failed to finish at Monza. For this year, I guess I’m looking to reverse that sequence! I’ve already moved on from my non-finish in Belgium and I’m really looking forward to returning to Italy, a place where I spent a lot of time racing karts: it’s a country I really love.

“I think we go into the weekend feeling pretty optimistic. I’ve never won at Monza and I’d love to get a good result this year. I’m particularly looking forward to qualifying, because I think DRS will make a huge difference to our laptimes, and I really want to get the maximum out of the car in quali – and then look forward to a strong race, of course.

“With unlimited use in quali, and those four long straights, I think qualifying’s going to be pretty intense: we’ll be 20km/h faster at four key points of the circuit, so our quali times are going to be much faster than in the race. That should be pretty exciting.

“For the race, you’ll also need the downforce, though, because you’ll want to be quick enough out of the second Lesmo and Parabolica to be in with a chance of challenging for position down the following straight.

“I think things are set for another very closely matched race – I’m really looking forward to it.”

Having won at Silverstone, Spa, Indianapolis and Monaco, Hamilton will be desperate to complete the full set of F1's most prestigious events. However, on a fast race track such as Monza, his greatest threat may come from team mate Jenson Button, who was oh so close to victory last term. For the 2009 World Champion, 2011's innovations are set to make this weekend's race a very special one.

Button said: “It’s going to be the usual difficult trade-off between drag and downforce to find the ultimate package for the race. Last year, Lewis and I opted to follow two different paths – Lewis went for the low-downforce configuration and I went for more grip, at the expense of straightline speed. That meant that, although I had the laptime, I didn’t quite have the opportunity to mount an attack for the lead, because I couldn’t get close enough along the straights to have a go into the braking areas.

Button said:

“But I think things will be a little more mixed-up this year. For the second time this season, we’ll have two distinct DRS zones, with two potential passing opportunities. The first zone’s going to be interesting because it’s always been very tough to challenge for position under braking for Ascari – the track’s pretty narrow and it’s a fast entry – so I’ll be really interested to see how well DRS will work into that corner – we might see some pretty spectacular moves!

“I think the more conventional passing opportunity will come from the second DRS zone, getting as close as possible into Parabolica, holding on through the corner – which won’t be straightforward – and then deploying DRS down the start/finish straight before, hopefully, passing into Turn One.

“The DRS is going to be a pretty major asset for a following car, and it might shape the race in some really interesting ways.”

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Josh.